Dragons and other flyers

A menacing dragon.

With my dark age figures having been rebased, I’ve started to work on HoTT versions of these armies, or HoTT opponents of them.

A not so menacing dragon.

There are (or will be) fantasy versions of my Dark Age Celts, my Vikings and my Feudal Europeans. Currently, these are light on fantasy elements, but I will work on making them soon. You can see some progress to date on these armies on My Armies above.

Valkyrie allies of the fantasy Vikings.

Then there are the straight fantasy armies, Goblins (the only one ready for the table, though still without rebased hordes), Elves and Dwarves. The Elves and Dwarves have their allies ready, and I have the figures to paint, but they are not ready otherwise. You can see progress on these armies on their pages at My Armies above.

Centaur allies of the Dwarves.

On the Painting table

When I last wrote, I said the next project would be to paint seven 4Pk for my successor armies. Well, they’re over half done, but others have jumped the cue.

• Rebasing

The biggest project has been to rebase all my old armies. I had started this before I went to Adelaide, and a lot of my HoTT elements were all but done, just waiting for the flock. The impetus to restart this project was a desire to see how knights and spears compared under DBA 3.0. This got me redoing my first two armies, the Normans and Anglo-Danish. I also flocked the HoTT elements while I was at it.

Next, I rebased the Welsh, Irish and Vikings. This has taken quite a while, and is now almost completed. I’ve innovated by using No More Gaps to hide the bases. It adds more time to the job, but is worth it.

In the process of rebasing I got enthused with my Dark Age armies and the potential to use them for HoTT. I’ve now got the Scots Isles and Highland army complete again (it was demobbed for SBH figures. This started with the plan to create a Thegn general for the Prefeudal Scots so that they could have a 4Wb general with rear rank support and flanked by pike, something that’s likely to tear holes in most lines of foot. When I learned that the Scots Isles and Highland army is going to have a lot more choice in DBA 3.0, I decided to paint up the four elements of 4Bd I needed to get this back on the table. I’ve also painted a few more archers in mail to make their 3Bw more imposing. I also repainted the 5Hd.

So that’s some of what’s been jumping the cue for painting. I’ve also done a few HoTT elements, some Prefeudal Scots and Irish Lurkers — skirmishers on a 40×30 base along with a dog each. Finally I did a Cleric element — three medieval monks. Magicians and Heroes will follow.

• Song of Blades and Heroes

I’ve also been painting a few figures for SBH, actually quite a few. I’ve now finished thirty foot, and three mounted knights and a Hippogriff rider are close to being done. Most of these are Essex early medieval figures, dismounted Norman knights and Norman spearmen and archers. This adds some useful variety to my SBH range, but also is a way of getting started on painting some of these figures for an Essex Norman army. The rest are six halflings, two mailed Highland archers and a Druid from the Tabletop range. I’ve got more figures from Tabletop’s fantasy range. They’re a little larger than most of my figures and are very much ‘adventurers’, as they all have backpacks and other equipment. The wizards won’t quite look right in HoTT, but will be useful for SBH.

A halfling crossing the new bridge over the new stream with some of the assorted terrain additions doted around.

The other big activity for SBH is making terrain. I made a river (or a stream) using No More Gaps on a T-shirt. I rounded this out with a small bridge and then added a few tokens for treasure — chests, barrels, etc. I’ve done a tent and a small hut. And I’ve also made some hedges using Scotch Brite on iceblock sticks. The next stage for SBH is really dungeon tiles when I get a chance.

Another angle.

He hasn’t seen the two dragons, though!

Really just seeing if the timer makes a difference with the camera. I think it does.

 

 

• Plans

Those seven elements of pike should be finished next. Then I suspect I’ll be working on HoTT stuff: heroes, wizards, but also a dwarf and an elf army. More fantasy SBH figures may get done as well. I’ve started putting together a 3Cv for my Welsh; the North Welsh can have a South Welsh ally, who has to include the general element. I find this a bit odd — Welsh with two 3Cv seems too much. I might also work on the Normans, but I reckon the elves and dwarves will be more attractive.

A HOTT Friday (Goblins v. Elves)

Last Friday I caught up with a friend for a spot of HOTT. There’s a group of guys playing HOTT with GW figures on 80mm wide bases. I took my figures anyway for a bit of show-and-tell. As it turned out there were only three of us and my figures were the most finished (the other two had 28mm armies still being painted, so we got out my Goblins and had a 36 point HOTT game with them. I was the Goblin chief with: 2xWb (1=cmd), 8xHd, 2xBh (Trolls and Ogres), 1xDr (the new Green one), 1xFl (Bats), 2xRd (wolf riders), 2xLu (Spiders), 1xSh, 1xBs (Wolves). Facing them were a coalition of all that is good and decent led by Keith and John. They had: 1xAHr (=cmd) (Hippogriff rider), 2xBh (Walking Tree and Giant), 2xHd (Human peasants), 1xSp (Wood Elves), 2xSh (Rangers and Wood Elves), 2xRd (Centaurs), 1xSh (Dwarves), 2xBd (Dwarves), 2xBs (Bears).

I was the attacker and faced the enemy across an open plain flanked by craggy hills and towering trees (28mm scale!); unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. On their left flank they had the peasants next to the Elven spear and the walking tree with the rangers and Elven archers in the woods guarding the flank. The General was in reserve. On the other flank they had the bears guarding the flank on the hill and the dwarves and giant in a line in the open. To face this I arrayed the general facing the Elves, flanked by his hordes and with the archers and wolves on the far flank. On the other flank I had the Troll and Ogres flanked by wolf riders. The bats were in reserve.

I got off to a great start, rolling a 6 and having the dragon arrive straight away (actually I think the spiders must have arrived on the first turn against the bears, but were chased off). Old Greeny pinned the bears while my mounted went against the Dwarves and destroyed the Giant ally. I had very much the better of the PIPs, but the battle was in the balance when the Aerial Hero started to turn the flank of my mounted. At this point my hordes had already started to get into action, without being impressive (no surprises there!). I had the option of pouring my PIPs into the combat with the hordes, with little chance of anything decisive, or gambling on the dragon attacking the aerial hero with the bats flanking it to prevent recoil. This brought the game down to, in effect, a coin toss, as the odds were 6-6. However, if I won the enemy broke; if I lost the dragon fled and I could carry on, though very exposed to their general. As it turned out, that dragon was a mean old bugger, and he minced the aerial hero and gave me the game. He’s showing real promise (unlike the red dragon that notoriously refused to show up in his early games). He’s given the Goblins their first victory ever!

HOTT Fridays may become a regular event for me, though I’m reluctant to commit to a 28mm army. Keith was very interested in the 15mm fantasy I had, though I doubt I’ll convince them all to go 15mm.